Your 2016 Summer Reading List

Your 2016 Summer Reading List

For most professionals, the long, lazy days of summer are a thing of the past. But not even the most important CEO can deny there is just something about summer that gives us permission to leave the office a little early on Friday or even procrastinate a bit.

You might find it surprising to know that many professionals use the summer months to jump start their job search or even explore some career development opportunities. In fact, here at TurningPoint Executive Search, we have consistently experienced a slight up-tick in our numbers during Q3. Traditionally, networking, workshops and continued education are the career development options of choice. However, many seem to forget one of the most cost effective and schedule-friendly types of professional development- reading a good book.

Successful professionals should always have a good book at their fingertips. Here’s what I’ve been reading this summer…

1. Chasing Relevance- 6 Steps to Understand, Engage, and Maximize Next-Generation Leaders in the Workplace, by Dan Degroni. Today, there are more than 83 million millennials in the United States, representing 36 percent of our workforce. By 2025, they will be 75 percent of your employees…and your customers. Our ability to attract, train, manage, and retain this next generation of leaders is critical to the future success of our businesses. Chasing Relevance empowers businesses and their leaders by bridging youth and experience to create powerful, connected workplaces. Learn how to create your own relevance to truly understand, engage and maximize your millennial employees and customers.

2. Triggers,by Marshall Goldsmith. In his powerful new book, “Marshall Goldsmith examines the environmental and psychological triggers that can derail us at work and in life. Goldsmith shows how we can overcome the trigger points in our lives, and enact meaningful and lasting change. Filled with revealing and illuminating stories from his work with some of the most successful chief executives and power brokers in the business world, Goldsmith offers a personal playbook on how to achieve change in our lives, make it stick, and become the person we want to be.”

3. Provoke- Why the Global Culture of Disruption is the only Hope for Innovation, by Linda Bernardi. Entrepreneur and “innovation provocateur,” Linda Bernardi, reveals the hate and denial with which organizations of all sizes approach provocative, disruptive ideas- and why embracing this discomfort and anxiety is the only path to true innovation, consistent growth, and long-term prosperity. Most important, in Provoke, Linda asserts that only by creating a collaborative, global ‘culture of disruption,’ in which provocative questions and creative destruction are nurtured and encouraged at all levels of the chain of command, can organizations maintain the innovative fire that ultimately leads to excellence. In other words, if you want to be successful, get ready to be uncomfortable.”

4. Moonshot- Game-Changing Strategies to Build Billion-Dollar Businesses,by John Sculley. “Former CEO of both PepsiCo and Apple, John Sculley lays out a road map for building a truly transformative business. Beginning with a can’t-fail concept and inspired by smart data, Moonshot! reveals the core concepts for a twenty-first century business. Producer-in-Control models are a thing of the past, but the Customer-in-Control future is bright for those that know how to use it. With technology at your back, now might be the best time in history to start a business―but the future belongs to those who see the possibilities before they become obvious. Moonshot! will teach you to have the upper hand in any business.”